p. 257.
'In him was life, and the life was the light of men'. The same Word
was life, the [Greek: logos and zoae], both one. There was no occasion
therefore for subtilly distinguishing the Word and Life into two Sons,
as some did.
I will not deny the possibility of this interpretation. It may be,--nay,
it is,--fairly deducible from the words of the great Evangelist: but I
cannot help thinking that, taken as the primary intention, it degrades
this most divine chapter, which unites in itself the three characters of
sublime, profound, and pregnant, and alloys its universality by a
mixture of time and accident.
Ib.
'And the light shineth in darkness, and the darkness cometh not upon
it.' So I render the verse, conformable to the rendering of the same
Greek verb, [Greek: katalambano], by our translators in another place
of this same Gospel. The Apostle, as I conceive, in this 5th verse of
his 1st chapter, alludes to the prevailing error of the Gentiles, &c.
O sad, sad! How must the philosopher have been eclipsed by the shadow of
antiquarian erudition, in order that a mind like Waterland's could have
sacrificed the profound universal import of 'comprehend' to an allusion
to a worthless dream of heretical nonsense, the mushroom of the day! Had
Waterland ever thought of the relation of his own understanding to his
reason? But alas! the identification of these two diversities--of how
many errors has it been ground and occasion!
Ib.
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